Sound Transit’s Proposition 1 will have little impact on Valley
October 14, 2008
By J.B. Wogan
Laura Hernandez, 25, waited for her local bus at the Issaquah Highlands Park-and-Ride Sept. 25. Every day she takes Sound Transit’s 554 express bus to and from Bellevue Community College, then hitches a ride on the King County Metro Transit’s 269 bus back to 228th Avenue. Then she walks to her home in the Summer Ridge neighborhood.
“It requires a lot of planning to take the bus,” Hernandez said. In the winter, the waits for each bus can be excruciating with the rain and wind.
“Then I’m cold, wet and cranky,” she said.
Hernandez said she hasn’t studied up on Sound Transit’s Proposition 1, and doesn’t know which way she’ll vote, but in general, she’s in favor of more bus service.
“I’m always waiting for buses. If there’s more of them out there, that gives me more options,” she said.
Sound Transit’s plan does seek to offer Hernandez and Eastside riders like her more options. For an estimated $17.9 billion over 15 years, the plan would use taxpayer dollars to fund light rail construction from Seattle to Bellevue and Redmond; it would also pay for expanded bus service around the Eastside, including Redmond and Issaquah.
The proposition, also known as Sound Transit 2 or ST2, will appear on county ballots Nov. 4 for voters in King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties.
The math
Sound Transit’s estimated $17.9 billion would be spent from 2009 to 2023 and would include capital costs, operations and maintenance fees, reserve funds, bond payments and inflation, according to Geoff Patrick, a spokesperson for Sound Transit.
Taxpayers would continue paying the increased sales tax after the 15-year period. Sound Transit’s projections include an additional $4.9 billion accumulated in interest fees from bonds.
Patrick said there is a rollback provision that would cause the sales tax to return to its pre-Proposition 1 status after the projects had been completed and paid off. Sound Transit estimates the rollback would take place around 2038.
Taxpayers would pay for the $17.9 billion from a sales tax increase of about five cents added to each $10 purchase. For the typical adult, the increase would be about $69 per year, according to Patrick.
The organization’s definition of “typical adult” assumes that the median income for a taxpayer in the Sound Transit District is $64,405. The district includes urban areas of Snohomish, Pierce and King counties.
Of course, the cost varies depending on spending.
“People who spend more, pay more,” Patrick said.
Patrick said increased bus service is one difference from last year’s failed Sound Transit proposition.
About 26 percent, or $3.5 billion, of the $13.4 billion in capital costs would go toward expanded bus service, whereas less than 5 percent was allotted for the same purpose last year, according to Patrick.
What would change for the Valley
Passage of Sound Transit 2 would not bring more buses to Snoqualmie and North Bend, but would provide for additional connections for King County Metro Transit riders to the Sound Transit system.
On Sept. 22, Metro kicked off Route 215 bus service to Snoqualmie Ridge, offering for the first time direct access to Seattle and other Metro and Sound Transit service locations.
Route 215 runs from the Mt. Si Senior Center in North Bend to Olive Way and 5th Avenue in Seattle.
The route also offers connections to the Sound Transit system, including a stop at the Issaquah Park & Ride, Eastgate Park & Ride in Bellevue and the I-90/Rainier Avenue connector locations, all of which, if SR2 is approved by voters, will see additional service from Sound Transit buses.
Potential problems
Some critics say Sound Transit 2 doesn’t benefit Eastside voters enough to justify its cost.
Jim Horn, Chairman of the Eastside Transportation Association, is one of those critics.
“It costs too much. It does too little. It is too late. And there is a better solution,” Horn said.
Horn levels many criticisms at the proposition, but one is that there should be more bus service and no light rail on the Eastside.
“The amount of bus service increases that they’re offering is minimal. Why don’t we just do the bus service and forget the light rail?” He said.
Horn is a former city councilman for Mercer Island and a former state representative for the 41st District.
Part of his association’s solution for providing Eastside commuters better transportation across the 520 and Interstate 90 bridges is carpooling.
“We can have people carpooling for virtually a one-tenth of the cost and we can carry 50 percent more riders than the light rail does,” he said.
The key to increasing carpool numbers across the region is in aggressive advertising, Horn said.
Horn added that he believed the light rail portion of the proposition would have negative environmental impacts to the area, would be logistically challenging to design and implement over Lake Washington, would be too expensive and would not offer enough ridership capacity to commuters.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
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